Research and analysis

Football Governance Bill - Regulation of English men’s professional football: RPC Opinion (Green rated)

Regulatory Policy Committee opinion on the Football Governance - Regulation of English men’s professional football Bill IA

Documents

RPC Opinion: Regulation of English men’s professional football

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Details

Update - 25 October 2024

The Government introduced the Football Governance Bill on 24 October 2024 and published an updated IA reflecting changes made to it since the version on which the RPC produced this opinion. DCMS considers the changes made are not significant and that the RPC’s opinion remains relevant.

Original summary - 20 March 2024

The proposal would establish an independent regulator with statutory powers. These powers include regulation of finance, corporate governance, ownership, club heritage and fan engagement, and backstop powers over revenue distribution.

The IA provides a satisfactory indicative assessment of the direct impacts on business, in line with RPC requirements for primary legislation stage IAs. The assessment of impacts on small and micro businesses is sufficient. The IA follows Treasury Green Book good practice on options identification and short-listing. The cost benefit analysis overall is satisfactory. There are some areas for improvement in this and in the assessment of wider impacts and the monitoring and evaluation plan. The IA describes how impacts will depend on secondary legislation and regulator codes of practice. The RPC would expect to see these assessments for validation of direct business impacts, subject to better regulation framework requirements.

Updates to this page

Published 20 March 2024
Last updated 26 October 2024 + show all updates
  1. This opinion, originally published in March 2024, remains relevant for a revised IA published alongside the Bill introduced in October 2024.

  2. First published.

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